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Does anyone actually use anything else other than Google? It seems so; in fact Google’s strangle hold on the UK actually slipped for the first time in five years. Has Google lost its mojo?
Ha, no, not exactly. Yes, according to Experian Hitwise, Google’s search share has slipped below 90 per cent for the first time in five long years, but it’s only a 1.41 per cent decline. Google totally owns the search market in Blighty with an 89.33 per cent share; Bing, Ask and Yahoo all gained search share, but only very small amounts.
Considering Google is built into almost every browser search bar by default, I’m amazed any of the others even get a look in. Does anyone from the Giz UK readership actually use Bing or any of the others on a regular basis? [The Register]
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What? There are OTHER search engines?
But seriously, Google all the way. Apart from DropBox, I prefer that to Drive for some reason which I forget.
Bing is the best search engine, for me. Bing all the way.
No
No what?
Does anyone from the Giz UK readership actually use Bing or any of the others on a regular basis?
Ahh, then also no (but you probably guessed that)
Use google on desktop and tablet (Nexus 7) but use bing on the phone (Lumia 920). Both do the job well.
I use Google BUT I can imagine a day when they’ll no longer be the force they are today…..it’s the way of the internet and all things including great civilisations, they rise and they fall.
Yahoo and AOL are the biggest examples I can think of off the top of my head.
5 years ago, I would have agreed, but look at the colossus that is Facebook. Taken on all comers, and won, not just by a little, by a lot G+ is barely mentioned these days, and as for MySpace… I sincerely cant see a time without Google, unless of course they get bought out – which seems unlikely.
I know what you mean but entropy is the way of everything, even Facebook won’t be around in a decade (imho).
What a wonderful world that would be…
I have no problem with people using facebook, my problem is when I get asked to join it 10 times everyday.
It could be worse… you could be on it, like me.
“Considering Google is built into almost every browser search bar by default, I’m amazed any of the others even get a look in.” Considering Bing is buit into IE which is built into Windows which is the OS mostly used in the workplace it is a testament to how good Google’s search is that people choose it instead. Consider that to change browser or a browsers default search requires you to actually care enough to do it rather than accept the defaults.
you do talk some BS
Common things people do that reset your default search / install search to Google include
Installing Chrome – you get this message every time you do anything on a google site including youtube, gmail etc etc….
Installing firefox
Installing Flash – Its a very small tick box you have to pay attention to, otherwise bam, it all changes….
Those 2 things alone will have a coverage of around 99% of pcs….
People certainly dont use it because of how good google is.. its been proven that bing results are preferred to Google results 2:1 in tests where people didnt know what they were looking at.
Google is used because its the norm, and mainly all people know about!
Another FYI – anyone who runs Windows update gets the browser selection screen, which is most people.. so IE gets uninstalled / hidden if they choose something else. Your love of Google really does blind you some times…. This is me loving Bing or w/e i think all companies do under handed tactics to gain / keep market share… but when it comes to Search / Browsers google are far and away the worst at it.
You are aware that a hell of a lot of businesses do not allow their drones to install new software on their windows machines right? Also “its been proven”? Really? One test of less than 1000 people is proof now is it? – you do talk some BS
getting 100 random people to pick a result and getting an answer of 2:1 is considered to be a practical test.
I see you side stepped the whole google paying everyone to set them as the default search engine and instead said everyone use them for their love for Google.
Not at all , Microsoft paid Amazon to set Amazon to set Bing as default on the Kindle fire and has also paid verizon to do this on some US phones , so it’s hardly one sided.
Show me 1 place that provides as many as Flash?
Read what i said above “This is me loving Bing or w/e i think all companies do under handed tactics to gain / keep market share… but when it comes to Search / Browsers google are far and away the worst at it.”
Yes MS do it… everyone tries to do it, but when it comes to browsers and search share Google does it the most… IE the 3 BILLION they paid Firefox…
I don’t deny that Google pays to be the default search on the majority of browsers,but this is public knowledge and hardly underhanded, it’s a major part of their business, since search data powers adwords. Likewise Microsoft is trying to cut into this with its yahoo search and ads partnership and I wouldn’t be vastly surprised if Apple tried the same thing in a few years.
As for flash, It’s been so long since I installed it I am not surprised I can’t remember anything about it changing the search engine. Of course since it is already Google by default on my system maybe it doesn’t show the box.
If you are happy with Bing, that’s fine by me. I’m happy with Google.
Ask Jeeves.
Just kidding. Can you imagine?
I use Bing on my Lumia 800 and Windows 8 laptop.
I also know of a couple of companies who still force their employees to use IE8 and have Bing as the default search which the largely technologically incompetent workforce have no inclination or ability to change.
I use bing more for the pretty picture and sometimes awesome videos more than anything… The difference between Google and Bing these days is miniscule.
I find some people use Google because they like the Google Doodle, some people use bing because they like the Pictures… but most people dont even know / care about what they are using.
What’s Bing??
Glad you asked, Bing is currently the best search engine on they web.
If you have any more questions please ask. The only dumb question is the question you don’t ask.
Do you work for MS per chance?
Nope, and I wouldn’t say I’m partially a Microsoft fan either.
But I do think they deserve a little credit where it’s due. Bing is a viable competitor to Google, and to be honest, it’s pretty much the only one. And a strong competitor is always good for the industry.
You asked, “Does anyone from the Giz UK readership actually use Bing?” and the answer is yes, I use Bing as my first point of call, and the reason is that I find it much better when you know what you are looking for. For example if I type in a SQL error code 99% of the time I find the Bing results give me a better response on how to fix the problem.
I miss the old days when I used to use Altavista, those happy little mountains keeping me company during my searching… good times.
Bing for image searches work well. Especially, because at work, google’s cached page search results are blocked.
I still use altavista. *grin*
Hell yeah, Yahoo Nectar point toolbar on the forced internet explorer useage on my work laptop. Every 2 searches gets me 1 nectar point so instead of typing in a website address I search the site and link to it from Yahoo instead. Adds 2 seconds but Nectar points baby!
That’s the reason I use Yahoo too. Though I find that Yahoo results generally aren’t as good as Bing/Google
Windows Phone forces you to use Bing, so I’ve used it, and my opinion is that it’s terrible. Results are no way near as up-to-date and searching for things that have been recent, such as news is a sad waste of time. My phone would be so much better if I could make that search button take me to Google!
I use Bing – I switched a while back they had that online test against google. Also, I love the home page. It hasn’t let me down yet.
When I open up Internet explorer and Bing is the default search on a new computer my first query is “Download google chrome”…….
You can cut out searching all together, chrome.google.com
It’s because of IE.
We use ixquick.com
Probably something to do with places pushing DuckDuckGo
Loves Bing, wicked images and keeps me away from Dirty Google! BING & DECIDE!!!!!!!!